MRS. WHITMAN.
Poe was still in Richmond, presumably courting the widow Shelton, though
in so quiet a manner that it attracted little or no attention, when he
unexpectedly received from Mrs. Whitman, who seems to have repented of
her silence, a letter or poem of so encouraging a nature that he
immediately left Richmond and proceeded to New York. Here he obtained a
letter of introduction to Mrs. Whitman, which he on the following day
presented to that lady at her home in Providence. The next evening he
spent in her company, and on the succeeding day asked her to marry him!
Receiving no definite answer, he, on his return to New York, sent her a
letter in which, alluding to his previous intention of addressing Mrs.
Shelton, he says:
"Your letter reached me on the very day on which I was about to enter
upon a course which would have borne me far away from you, sweet, sweet
Helen, and the divine dream of your love."
A few weeks later, when he had obtained from her a conditional promise
of marriage, he again wrote--a letter in which he clearly alludes to his
still cherished design of establishing the _Stylus_, from which he
anticipates such brilliant results. Thus he artfully and apparently for
the first time seeks to interest her in the scheme.
"Am I right, dearest Helen, in the impression that you are ambitious? If
so, and if you will have faith in me, I can and will satisfy your
wildest desires. It would be a glorious triumph for us, darling--for you
and me ... to establish in America the sole unquestionable
aristocracy--that of the intellect; to secure its supremacy, to lead and
control it. All this I can do, Helen, and will--if you bid me _and aid
me_."
Aware of her belief in occult and spiritual influences, he tells her
that once, on hearing a lady repeat certain utterances of hers which
appeared but the secret reflex of his own spirit, his soul seemed
suddenly to become one with hers. "From that hour I loved you. I have
never seen or heard your name without a shiver, half of delight, half of
anxiety. The impression left upon my mind was that you were still a
wife." (No such scruple had disturbed him in the case of Mrs. Osgood and
others.) He goes on thus artfully to explain the incident of his
declining Mrs. Osgood's offer of an introduction to Mrs. Whitman while
in Providence. "For this reason I shunned your presence. You may
remember that once, when I passed through Providence with Mrs. Osgood, I
positively refused to accompany her to your house. I dared neither go,
or say why I could not. I dared not speak of you, much less see you.
_For years_ your name never passed my lips, while my soul drank in with
a delirious thirst all that was uttered in my presence respecting you."
It will be observed that he is here speaking of a time when his wife,
whom he "loved as man never before loved," was yet living; and also when
he was giving himself up to his unreasoning passion for Mrs. Osgood,
whom he had followed to Providence.
After this, who shall undertake to defend Poe from the charge of
insincerity and dissimulation?
Mrs. Osgood calls Poe's letters "divinely beautiful." We cannot tell how
Mrs. Whitman was affected by them, but certainly her whole course
exhibits her in a constant struggle between her own inclination and the
influence of friends who desired to save her from the match with Poe. As
early as January 21, 1848, it was known to the public that an engagement
existed between the two, and I have the authority of Mrs. Kellogg for
the statement that during the summer of that year Mrs. Whitman three
times renewed this engagement and was as often compelled to break it,
owing to his unfortunate habits. The last engagement was made on his
solemnly vowing reformation; on which a day was fixed for the marriage
and the services of a clergyman bespoken by Poe himself, who thereupon
wrote to Mrs. Clemm desiring her to be ready to receive himself and his
bride--at Fordham!
One may imagine the dismay of poor Mrs. Clemm when she read this letter
and looked around the humble home with its low-ceiled upstairs room,
which had been Virginia's; the pine kitchen table and her dozen pieces
of crockery. For once her strong mind and resourceful talent must have
failed her. How was she to accommodate the fastidious bride of her most
inconsiderate son-in-law? How even provide a wedding repast against
their arrival? But happily she was spared the horror of such an
experience, for on the appointed day Poe arrived at Fordham alone,
though in a state of nervous excitement, which necessitated days and
even weeks of careful nursing on the part of his patient and
long-suffering mother-in-law.
This final separation between the two--for they never again met--was
caused by Poe's intemperance at his hotel in Providence on the day
previous to that appointed for his marriage. He had delivered a lecture
which was enthusiastically applauded, and on his return to the hotel he
found himself surrounded by an admiring crowd, whose hospitalities he at
first resolutely declined, but with his usual weakness of will, finally
yielded to. Of the stormy scene when, on the following day, Mrs. Whitman
finally and decisively refused to marry him, she has herself given an
account, representing Poe as alternately pleading and "raving" in his
unwillingness to accept her decision. But there can be no question but
that he was at this time either in some degree mentally unbalanced or in
such a state physically as that the least excess would serve to excite
his mind beyond its normal condition and render him partly
irresponsible. Of this we have proof in the fact of his intention of
taking his proposed bride to Fordham.
That Mrs. Whitman was really interested in her gifted and eccentric
suitor is evident, and in her heart she was loyal to him, as is shown by
her defence of him after his death, and also by the lines which she
addressed to him some months after their separation, entitled, "_The
Isle of Dreams_." Most of her poems written after this time had some
reference to him; and it is worthy of note that no woman whom Poe
professed to love ever lost her interest in him. The fascination which
he exerted over them must have been something extraordinary.
As regards Poe's feelings toward Mrs. Whitman, it is evident from the
beginning that there was no real love on his part. He expressed no
regret at the ending of his "divine dream of love," but seems rather to
have experienced toward her a degree of resentment which thus found
expression in a letter to a friend:
"From this day forth I shun the pestilential society of literary women.
They are a heartless, unnatural, venomous, dishonorable set, with no
guiding principle but inordinate self-esteem. Mrs. Osgood is the only
exception I know of."
This tirade was doubtless excited partly by a scandal just now started
by one of the literary set in question concerning Poe and a young
married lady of Lowell. While delivering a lecture in that city he had
been hospitably entertained at her home, where he spent several days,
with the usual result of contracting a sentimental friendship with the
charming hostess, whom he calls "Annie." During the latter part of his
engagement to Mrs. Whitman his visits and attentions to this lady did
not escape the notice of the "literary set," and a scandal was at once
started by one of them, who drew the attention of "Annie's" husband to
the matter. He accepted Poe's explanation and his proposal rather to
give up the society of these friends than to be the cause of trouble to
them, saying:
"I cannot and will not have it upon my conscience that I have interfered
with the domestic happiness of _the only being on earth whom I have
loved at the same time with purity and with truth_."
Certainly an extraordinary avowal to be made to the lady's husband; and
we ask ourselves to how many women had he made a similar declaration?
We have seen that when Poe for the last time left Mrs. Whitman's he went
direct to Fordham, where, said Mrs. Clemm, he raved about "Annie," and
even sent to her, reminding her of the "holy promise which he had
exacted from her in their hour of parting, that she would come to him on
his bed of death," and now claiming the fulfilment of that promise.
Whether or not she complied does not appear; but it is more than likely
that the lines, "_For Annie_," were suggested by his fever-dreams of her
presence, first written while still half-delirious, and subsequently
slightly altered to their present form. This piece, with the lines, "_To
My Mother_," after being declined by all the more prominent magazines,
finally appeared in the cheap "_Boston Weekly_," and must have been a
surprise to "Annie" and her husband.
But there was one woman of the "literary set" who showed that she at
least was not deserving of the sweeping condemnation wherewith the irate
poet had visited them. This was Mrs. Anna Estelle Lewis, a young poetess
who, with her husband, was on friendly terms with Poe, and whose poems
he had favorably noticed. Poe was still, mentally and physically, in a
state which rendered him incapable of writing, and the condition at
Fordham was deplorable. Suspecting this state of things, Mrs. Lewis and
her husband invited Poe to visit them at their home in Brooklyn, and Mr.
Lewis says that thenceforth they frequently had both himself and Mrs.
Clemm to stay with them. It was this kindly couple that R. H. Stoddard
so sharply satirizes in his "_Reminiscences_" of Poe, while accepting an
evening's hospitality at their home after the poet's death. On this
occasion he met with Mrs. Clemm, of whom he has given a pen picture of
which we instinctively recognize the life-likeness. We can see the good
lady seated serenely among the company in her "black bombazine and
conventional widow's cap," lightly fingering her eye-glasses, as was her
company habit, and with her strongly marked features wearing that
"benevolent" smile which was characteristic of her most amiable moods.
"She assured me," says Stoddard, "that she had often heard her Eddie
speak of me--which I doubted--and that she believed she had also heard
him speak of the stripling by my side--which was an impossibility....
She regretted that she had no more autographs to dispose of, but hinted
that she could manufacture them, since she could exactly imitate her
Eddie's handwriting; and this she told as though it had been to her
credit."
Deeply chagrined at the ending of his affair with Mrs. Whitman, and
consequent disappointment in regard to the _Stylus_, Poe now, encouraged
by his mother-in-law, again turned his thoughts to Mrs. Shelton.
It was in July that he and Mrs. Clemm left Fordham, he to proceed to
Richmond, and she, having let their rooms until his return, to stay with
the Lewises. Mr. Lewis says that it was at his front door that Poe took
an affectionate leave of them all; Mrs. Clemm, ever watchful and careful
against possible temptation or pitfalls by the way, accompanying him to
the boat to see him off. In parting from her he spoke cheeringly and
affectionately. "God bless you, my own darling Muddie. Do not fear for
Eddie. See how good I will be while away; and I will come back to love
and comfort you."[8]
[8] Ingram.
And so, smiling and hopeful, the devoted mother stood upon the pier and
watched to the last the receding form which she was never again to
behold.